The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism is holding its first workshop on August 1, 2017, in San Francisco, where representatives from the tech industry, government, and non-governmental organizations are coming together to share information and best practices about how to counter the threat of terrorist content online.

Formed last month by Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube, the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism formalizes and structures how our companies work together to curtail the spread of terrorism and violent extremism on our hosted consumer services. Building on the work started within the EU Internet Forum and the shared industry hash database, the GIFCT is fostering collaboration with smaller tech companies, civil society groups and academics, and governments.

In addition to the founding companies of the GIFCT, more than two dozen other technology companies and NGOs will be participating in Tuesday's meeting. We also welcome United Kingdom Home Secretary Rt Hon Amber Rudd MP and United States Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke — as well as representatives from Australia, Canada, the European Union, and the United Nations — to discuss mutual areas of cooperation.

At Tuesday's meeting we will be formalizing our goals for collaboration and identifying with smaller companies specific areas of support needed as part of the the GIFCT's workplan. Our mission is to substantially disrupt terrorists' ability to use the Internet in furthering their causes, while also respecting human rights. This disruption includes addressing the promotion of terrorism, dissemination of propaganda, and the exploitation of real-world terrorist events through online platforms. To achieve this, we will join forces around three strategies:

Employing and leveraging technology

Sharing knowledge, information and best practices, and

Conducting and funding research.

In the next several months, we also aim to achieve the following:

Secure the participation of five additional companies to the industry hash-sharing database for violent terrorist imagery; two of which have already joined: Snap Inc. and Justpaste.it

Reach 50 companies to share best practices on how to counter terrorism online through the Tech Against Terrorism project in partnership with ICT4Peace and the U.N. Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate

Conduct four knowledge-sharing workshops — starting in San Francisco Tuesday, with plans for further meetings later this year in other locations around the world

We believe that the best approach to tackling online terrorism is to collaborate with each other and with others outside the private sector, including civil society and government. We look forward to further cooperation as we develop a joint strategic plan over time.

A month ago, we told you about four new steps we’re taking to combat terrorist content on YouTube. One of our core areas of focus is more work to counter online violent extremism. As a first step we’re now rolling out features from Jigsaw’s Redirect Method on YouTube.

Over the past years, Jigsaw partnered with Moonshot CVE to conduct extensive research to understand how extremist groups leverage technology to spread their message and recruit new members. From there, they created the Redirect Method, which uses curated video content to redirect people away from violent extremist propaganda and steer them toward video content that confronts extremist messages and debunks its mythology. Today, YouTube is rolling out a feature using the model proven by the Redirect Method: when people search for certain keywords on YouTube, we will display a playlist of videos debunking violent extremist recruiting narratives.

This early product integration of the Redirect Method on YouTube is our latest effort to provide more resources and more content that can help change minds of people at risk of being radicalized. Over the coming weeks, we hope to build on this by:

Expanding the new YouTube product functionality to a wider set of search queries in other languages beyond English.

Using machine learning to dynamically update the search query terms.

Working with expert NGOs on developing new video content designed to counter violent extremist messaging at different parts of the radicalization funnel.

Collaborating with Jigsaw to expand the “Redirect Method” in Europe.

This work is made possible by our partnerships with NGOs that are experts in this field, and we will continue to collaborate closely with them to help support their research through our technological tools. We hope our work together will also help open and broaden a dialogue about other work that can be done to counter radicalization of potential recruits.

As we develop this model of the Redirect Method on YouTube, we’ll measure success by how much this content is engaged. Stay tuned for more.